Principle
Without God, victory is impossible.
Explanation
After GOD sentenced Israel to 40 years of wandering, Israel “repented” of their sin of disbelief. Driven by a desire to avoid GOD’s punishment of death in the wilderness, the people decided to take the land after all. Only, this time GOD was not with them.
20 Again the Lord said to Moses, “I am merciful to them according to your word; 21 but truly, as I live, and My name lives, and all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord; 22 assuredly, all the men who are seeing My glory and signs, which I did in Egypt and in this desert, and put Me to the test now these ten times, and did not heed My voice, 23 they certainly shall not see the land I swore to their fathers; but their children who are here with Me and do not know good nor evil, every inexperienced youngster, to these I shall give the land; however, all those who provoked Me shall not see it. 24 Now My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and followed Me fully, I will bring him into the land where he went, and his seed shall inherit it. 25 Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwell in the valley; tomorrow, turn and depart for the desert by the way of the Red Sea.”
26 Moreover the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 27 “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who murmur against Me? I heard the murmuring the children of Israel make against Me. 28 Say to them, ‘As I live, says the Lord, surely in the manner you spoke in My hearing, so I will do to you: 29 your bodies shall fall in this desert, and all your census, who were numbered from twenty years old and above, as many as murmured against Me; 30 and you shall not enter the land upon which I stretched out My hand that you might settle upon it, except for Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun; 31 but your children, whom you said would be plunder, I will bring them into the land, and they shall inherit the land from which you apostatized. 32 But your bodies shall fall in this desert; 33 however, your sons shall be shepherds in the desert forty years, and shall bear your fornication until your bodies are consumed in the desert. 34 According to the number of the days you spied out the land, forty days, for each day you shall bear your guilt one year, namely forty years, and you shall know My fierce anger. 35 I the Lord have spoken; surely I will do so to all this evil congregation gathered together against Me. In this desert they shall be utterly destroyed, and there they shall die.’” 36 Now the men Moses sent to spy out the land, and who when they returned murmured against him to the congregation by bringing an evil report of the land, 37 those very men who spoke evil words against the land died by the plague before the Lord. 38 But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive, of the men who went to spy out the land.
39 Then Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned exceedingly. 40 But they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place the Lord spoke about, for we sinned.” 41 So Moses said, “Now why do you transgress the word of the Lord? For this will not be easy for you. 42 Do not go up, for the Lord is not with you, and you shall fall before the face of your enemies. 43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword; because you have turned away from and disobeyed the Lord, the Lord will not be among you.” 44 But they rebelled and went up to the mountaintop; nevertheless, neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses moved from the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in that mountain came down and attacked them, and turned them back and cut them down as far as Hormah. Then they returned to the camp.
Numbers 14:20-45 OSB
GOD wanted Israel to have faith from the beginning. He had given them the victory, but they refused to believe. They refused to act in faith.
Once the punishment for their disbelief was pronounced, they gave it more thoughts and figured, upon second thought, they had faith after all.
The Israelites decided they would go up and fight the Canaanites and Amalekites. But Moses warned them that they would fail because GOD was not with them.
Israel needed to learn the lesson the hard way that what really mattered was whether GOD was on their side.
With GOD, all things are possible. When GOD is against or not supportive of us, we cannot succeed.
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